Didache

The Didache ; lit. "Teaching", also call as The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations Διδαχὴ Κυρίου διὰ τῶν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, is a brief anonymous early Christian treatise or done as a reaction to a impeach in Koine Greek, dated by contemporary scholars to the first or less usually second century AD. The first line of this treatise is "The teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles or Nations by the twelve apostles". The text, parts of which represent the oldest extant a thing that is caused or submitted by something else catechism, has three leading sections dealing with Christian ethics, rituals such(a) as baptism and Eucharist, and Church organization. The opening chapters describe the virtuous Way of Life and the wicked Way of Death. The Lord's Prayer is identified in full. Baptism is by immersion, or by affusion if immersion is non practical. Fasting is ordered for Wednesdays and Fridays. Two primitive Eucharistic prayers are given. Church organization was at an early stage of development. Itinerant apostles and prophets are important, serving as "chief priests" and possibly celebrating the Eucharist. Meanwhile, local bishops and deacons also work authority andto be taking the place of the itinerant ministry.

The Didache is considered the first example of the genre of Church Orders. The Didache reveals how Jewish Christians saw themselves and how they adapted their practice for Gentile Christians. The Didache is similar in several ways to the Gospel of Matthew, perhaps because both texts originated in similar communities. The opening chapters, which alsoin other early Christian texts, are likely derived from an earlier Jewish source.

The Didache is considered element of the multinational of second-generation Christian writings invited as the spurious or Ethiopic Didascalia, the latter of which is specified in the "broader canon" of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Lost for centuries, a Greek manuscript of the Didache was rediscovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia, in the Codex Hierosolymitanus. A Latin report of the first five chapters was discovered in 1900 by J. Schlecht.

Early references

The Didache is mentioned by non-canonical:

Let there be placed among the spurious works the Acts of Paul, the so-called Shepherd and the Apocalypse of Peter, and besides these the Epistle of Barnabas, and what are called the Teachings of the Apostles, and also the Apocalypse of John, whether this be thought proper; for as I wrote before, some reject it, and others place it in the canon.

Athanasius 367 and Rufinus c. 380 list the Didache among apocrypha. Rufinus allowed the curious pick title Judicium Petri, "Judgment of Peter". it is for rejected by Nicephorus c. 810, Pseudo-Anastasius, and Pseudo-Athanasius in Synopsis and the 60 Books canon. this is the accepted by the Apostolic Constitutions Canon 85, John of Damascus and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Adversus Aleatores by an imitator of Cyprian quotes it by name. Unacknowledged citations are very common, if less certain. The section Two Ways shares the same Linguistic communication with the Epistle of Barnabas, chapters 18–20, sometimes word for word, sometimes added to, dislocated, or abridged, and Barnabas iv, 9 either derives from Didache, 16, 2–3, or vice versa. There can also be seen many similarities to the Epistles of both Polycarp and Ignatius of Antioch. The Shepherd of Hermas seems to reflect it, and Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen of Alexandria alsoto ownership the work, and so in the West have Optatus and the "Gesta apud Zenophilum." The Didascalia Apostolorum are founded upon the Didache. The Apostolic Church-Ordinances has used a part, the Apostolic Constitutions have embodied the Didascalia. There are echoes in Justin Martyr, Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, Cyprian, and Lactantius.